5,564 research outputs found
Precursor phenomena at the magnetic ordering of the cubic helimagnet FeGe
We report on detailed magnetic measurements on the cubic helimagnet FeGe in
external magnetic fields and temperatures near the onset of long-range magnetic
order at K. Precursor phenomena display a complex succession of
temperature-driven crossovers and phase transitions in the vicinity of .
The A-phase region, present below and fields kOe, is split in
several pockets. Relying on a modified phenomenological theory for chiral
magnets, the main part of the A-phase could indicate the existence of a
Skyrmion lattice, the adjacent A pocket, however, appears to be related to
helicoids propagating in directions perpendicular to the applied field.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Chiral Skyrmionic matter in non-centrosymmetric magnets
Axisymmetric magnetic strings with a fixed sense of rotation and nanometer
sizes (chiral magnetic vortices or Skyrmions) have been predicted to exist in a
large group of non-centrosymmetric crystals more than two decades ago. Recently
these extraordinary magnetic states have been directly observed in thin layers
of cubic helimagnet (Fe,Co)Si. In this report we apply our earlier theoretical
findings to review main properties of chiral Skyrmions, to elucidate their
physical nature, and to analyse these recent experimental results on
magnetic-field-driven evolution of Skyrmions and helicoids in chiral
helimagnets.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, invited talk - JEMS-2010 ( 23-28 August, Krakow,
Poland
Limb-Darkening of a K Giant in the Galactic Bulge: PLANET Photometry of MACHO 97-BLG-28
We present the PLANET photometric dataset for the binary-lens microlensing
event MACHO 97-BLG-28 consisting of 696 I and V-band measurements, and analyze
it to determine the radial surface brightness profile of the Galactic bulge
source star. The microlensed source, demonstrated to be a K giant by our
independent spectroscopy, crossed the central isolated cusp of the lensing
binary, generating a sharp peak in the light curve that was well-resolved by
dense (3 - 30 minute) and continuous monitoring from PLANET sites in Chile,
South Africa, and Australia. Our modeling of these data has produced stellar
profiles for the source star in the I and V bands that are in excellent
agreement with those predicted by stellar atmospheric models for K giants. The
limb-darkening coefficients presented here are the first derived from
microlensing, among the first for normal giants by any technique, and the first
for any star as distant as the Galactic bulge. Modeling indicates that the
lensing binary has a mass ratio q = 0.23 and an (instantaneous) separation in
units of the angular Einstein ring radius of d = 0.69 . For a lens in the
Galactic bulge, this corresponds to a typical stellar binary with a projected
separation between 1 and 2 AU. If the lens lies closer, the separation is
smaller, and one or both of the lens objects is in the brown dwarf regime.
Assuming that the source is a bulge K2 giant at 8 kpc, the relative lens-source
proper motion is mu = 19.4 +/- 2.6 km/s /kpc, consistent with a disk or bulge
lens. If the non-lensed blended light is due to a single star, it is likely to
be a young white dwarf in the bulge, consistent with the blended light coming
from the lens itself.Comment: 32 Pages, including 1 table and 9 postscript figures. (Revised
version has slightly modified text, corrected typo, and 1 new figure.)
Accepted for publication in 1999 Astrophysical Journal; data are now
available at http://www.astro.rug.nl/~plane
Magnetic structures and reorientation transitions in noncentrosymmetric uniaxial antiferromagnets
A phenomenological theory of magnetic states in noncentrosymmetric tetragonal
antiferromagnets is developed, which has to include homogeneous and
inhomogeneous terms (Lifshitz-invariants) derived from Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya
couplings. Magnetic properties of this class of antiferromagnets with low
crystal symmetry are discussed in relation to its first known members, the
recently detected compounds Ba2CuGe2O7 and K2V3O8. Crystallographic symmetry
and magnetic ordering in these systems allow the simultaneous occurrence of
chiral inhomogeneous magnetic structures and weak ferromagnetism. New types of
incommensurate magnetic structures are possible, namely, chiral helices with
rotation of staggered magnetization and oscillations of the total
magnetization. Field-induced reorientation transitions into modulated states
have been studied and corresponding phase diagrams are constructed. Structures
of magnetic defects (domain-walls and vortices) are discussed. In particular,
vortices, i.e. localized non-singular line defects, are stabilized by the
inhomogeneous Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in uniaxial noncentrosymmetric
antiferromagnets.Comment: 18 pages RevTeX4, 13 figure
Spin-flop transition in uniaxial antiferromagnets: magnetic phases, reorientation effects, multidomain states
The classical spin-flop is the field-driven first-order reorientation
transition in easy-axis antiferromagnets. A comprehensive phenomenological
theory of easy-axis antiferromagnets displaying spin-flops is developed. It is
shown how the hierarchy of magnetic coupling strengths in these
antiferromagnets causes a strongly pronounced two-scale character in their
magnetic phase structure. In contrast to the major part of the magnetic phase
diagram, these antiferromagnets near the spin-flop region are described by an
effective model akin to uniaxial ferromagnets. For a consistent theoretical
description both higher-order anisotropy contributions and dipolar stray-fields
have to be taken into account near the spin-flop. In particular,
thermodynamically stable multidomain states exist in the spin-flop region,
owing to the phase coexistence at this first-order transition. For this region,
equilibrium spin-configurations and parameters of the multidomain states are
derived as functions of the external magnetic field. The components of the
magnetic susceptibility tensor are calculated for homogeneous and multidomain
states in the vicinity of the spin-flop. The remarkable anomalies in these
measurable quantities provide an efficient method to investigate magnetic
states and to determine materials parameters in bulk and confined
antiferromagnets, as well as in nanoscale synthetic antiferromagnets. The
method is demonstrated for experimental data on the magnetic properties near
the spin-flop region in the orthorhombic layered antiferromagnet
(C_2H_5NH_3)_2CuCl_4.Comment: (15 pages, 12 figures; 2nd version: improved notation and figures,
correction of various typos
Probing Red Giant Atmospheres with Gravitational Microlensing
Gravitational microlensing provides a new technique for studying the surfaces
of distant stars. Microlensing events are detected in real time and can be
followed up with precision photometry and spectroscopy. This method is
particularly adequate for studying red giants in the Galactic bulge. Recently
we developed an efficient method capable of computing the lensing effect for
thousands of frequencies in a high-resolution stellar spectrum. Here we
demonstrate the effects of microlensing on synthesized optical spectra of red
giant model atmospheres. We show that different properties of the stellar
surface can be recovered from time-dependent photometry and spectroscopy of a
point-mass microlensing event with a small impact parameter. In this study we
concentrate on center-to-limb variation of spectral features. Measuring such
variations can reveal the depth structure of the atmosphere of the source star.Comment: 23 pages with 11 Postscript figures, submitted to ApJ; Section 2
expanded, references added, text revise
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